The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a $10 million junior equity investment in the KawiSafi(link is external) II Fund to help local businesses create and expand climate projects that aid vulnerable communities. The approved financing will be deployed from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a catalytic financing facility managed by the Bank Group.

KawiSafi II is a $200 million venture equity fund to address investment gaps in energy transition, productivity, mobility and logistics in sub-Saharan Africa. It includes a $10 million technical assistance facility to maximise climate impact and ensure better management of environmental, social, and governance risks.

KawiSafi II is a follow-on from KawiSafi Fund I, a $67 million off-grid energy fund established in 2016, which benefited from a strong sponsor, Acumen Fund(link is external). Acumen has over 20 years of experience investing in transformational companies to solve global poverty challenges, including in the renewable energy space. KawiSafi Fund I successfully invested in companies such as D.light(link is external), Bboxx(link is external), and BioLite(link is external), among others.

“The African Development Bank’s investment into KawiSafi II, our innovative climate fund, is catalytic for helping us reach a first close and attract the significant private capital that is urgently required to support Africa’s climate innovators,” said Amar Inamdar, Managing Director of KawiSafi Ventures. “As the leading development finance institution on the continent, the Bank’s catalytic commitment will leverage investments into breakthrough African start-ups addressing climate change through renewable energy, clean mobility, and other key sectors crucial to achieving our climate goals.”

The KawiSafi Funds are prime examples of the patient and risk-tolerant capital required to support growing African climate businesses seeking to penetrate new markets against the backdrop of a significant shortage of equity capital in the market.

João Duarte Cunha, Manager of the Bank Group’s Renewable Energy Funds Division, which oversees SEFA, said, “The KawiSafi Fund II presents an opportunity to avail more venture and growth capital to emerging businesses linked to energy access and energy transition, at a time when such capital is most needed in the market.”

The African Development Bank’s investment through SEFA in KawiSafi II demonstrates its ongoing commitment to promoting a just energy transition and combating climate change via strategic partnerships with the private sector and investments in innovative solutions.

ABOUT SEFA

SEFA is a multi-donor Special Fund that provides catalytic finance to unlock private sector investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. SEFA offers technical assistance and concessional finance instruments to remove market barriers, build a more robust pipeline of projects and improve the risk-return profile of individual investments. The Fund’s overarching goal is to contribute to universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services for all in Africa, in line with the New Deal on Energy for Africa and Sustainable Development Goal 7.